Sunderland was relegated from the Premier League in the 2016-17 season. They were then dropped down from the Championship in 2017-18. Their 2018-19 season was an improvement, but they failed to get promoted in the Championship League playoff.

Sunderland vs Charlton Athletic Promotion Playoff

The England Football League One (third tier) promotion playoffs were today. The match pitted Sunderland against Charlton Athletic.

As watchers of the Netflix docu-series know, Sunderland have had a precipitous fall from grace. Just two years ago they were in the Premier League. After a year of ownership and management upheaval, they found themselves relegated from the Championship League into the EFL.

This year was looking better. The Championship League was in sight. And today was looking really, really good early on.

Less than five minutes into the game, Charlton let in an all-time howler of an own goal (0:30 in the vid). It seemed like Sunderland was destined to move back on up.

Then, see…

Charlton leveled 1-1 in the 35th minute.

And then, um, in the final few seconds of stoppage time (hop to 1:40)…

For Sunder ‘Til I Die fans, yes, there will be a Season 2, and yes, there may just be a happy ending this time.

For those unfamiliar, proud English soccer club Sunderland were relegated from the Premier League after the 2016/17 campaign. A Netflix documentary was ordered, presumably to capture their promotion back into the Premier League from the Championship (Tier 2).

That didn’t quite happen.

Sunderland had as disastrous meltdown in the Championship. They were relegated down to English League One (Tier 3). With a new owner, the club hoped to have a new outlook as they attempted to restore glory and find their way back into top tier English soccer.